A northwest suburban police department illegally shared automatic license plate reader information with a Texas sheriff searching for a woman who got an abortion, according to Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias.
Mount Prospect police have also shared license plate data in hundreds of immigration-related cases in violation of a state law that took effect last year, Giannoulias’ office says — and they’re probably not alone among Illinois departments cooperating with out-of-state law enforcement when they shouldn’t be.
Mount Prospect officials denied wrongdoing, but the state is launching an audit to make sure police across Illinois are following the law that’s intended to shield people seeking abortions or lacking legal status from out-of-state prosecution, state officials announced Thursday.
“License plate readers can serve as an important tool for law enforcement, but these cameras must be regulated so they aren’t abused for surveillance, tracking the data of innocent people or criminalizing lawful behavior,” Giannoulias said in a statement.
Thousands of privately-operated license plate readers scan thousands of vehicles every second on roads in Illinois and across the nation. Police departments in the network regularly request data from agencies in other jurisdictions to investigate crimes.
As other states banned abortion following the reversal of Roe v. Wade, Giannoulias championed legislation that took effect in 2024 prohibiting out-of-state law enforcement from accessing Illinois license plate readers to investigate or penalize people for seeking an abortion.
The law requires police departments in other states to agree not to use license plate data shared by Illinois to pursue individuals due to their immigration status or for seeking reproductive care, and it bars Illinois police agencies from sharing data in such cases.
A report published last month by 404 Media found Mount Prospect police shared license plate reader data with the Johnson County, Texas, sheriff’s office in its search for a woman whose family was concerned about her self-administered abortion.
Sheriff Adam King told the news outlet that his office sent a nationwide request for information on Flock Safety’s network of more than 83,000 cameras — including those in Mount Prospect — for the woman’s safety, not “to block her from leaving the state or whatever to get an abortion.”
The woman, who didn’t come to Illinois, was later found safe.
Giannoulias’ office confirmed 404 Media’s findings and criticized Mount Prospect police for providing “a gateway into Illinois’ system operated by Flock for an unauthorized use, despite the Texas police stating that the reason for the search was related to abortion care.”
A further probe found Mount Prospect plate data was accessed in 262 immigration-related matters during the first few months of this year alone. The violations could block the suburb from state grant funding.
In a statement late Thursday, Mount Prospect police Chief Michael Eterno said his department never had an agreement with the Texas agency, and that they’ve opted out of Flock Safety’s “national lookup” feature that may have inadvertently allowed the unauthorized access.
“I am tremendously upset that some law enforcement agencies who agreed to follow Illinois law, in order to gain access to our ALPR data, conducted illegal searches violating the trust of our community,” Eterno said. “As disappointed as I am with these other agencies, I want to emphasize that no member of the Mount Prospect Police Department shared ALPR data in violation of the law. I realize that this misuse of Mount Prospect’s ALPR data violates the trust of our community, and we as a department will continue to work to enhance the Flock ALPR software and ensure this abuse does not occur in the future.”
A Flock spokesman said the company is working with the state “to ensure Illinois can determine how and when to use [license plate reader] data, as guided by state law.”
At least 46 out-of-state agencies had been cut off from Flock’s Illinois network as of Wednesday afternoon, according to Giannoulias’ office, which is auditing the system to see if other in-state departments have violated the law.
Illinois has served as a Midwest island of abortion access as other states ban or severely restrict access to the medical procedure. It’s also among the sanctuary states targeted by President Donald Trump’s administration for limiting law enforcement cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
Abortion is illegal in nearly all circumstances in Texas, which also has a law offering “bounties” for people who successfully sue anyone who has helped another person get an abortion in that state.
“Whether it’s willful or negligence, it is on our local law enforcement to know what the laws are in this state,” said Sarah Garza Resnick, CEO of the pro-abortion rights Personal PAC. “We expect everyone in every level of government to follow it.”